EC Romanticon 2012: Reminiscing

This time last year I was biting my fingernails down to the nubs. I was packing and getting ready for my first author conference.

The reason for my angst? I didn’t have a book out yet, so I was applying the title “author” very loosely. I had a book, but I was entrenched in edits and it wouldn’t be released in time for the conference.

My other worries? I was going to another state to spend the weekend with a bunch of people that I didn’t know. I would be forced to make (gasp) new friends. And since this was my first ever conference I didn’t know what to expect or bring.

My only saving grace was that I had hooked up with another author as roomies. “At least I would have someone to talk to some of the time,” I thought to myself. Lea Barrymire was a newbie author like me and this was also her first conference. So, putting on my big girl panties, I packed and headed out to Ohio to Ellora’s Cave Romanticon 2012.

I can honestly say I left a scared and timid woman and came back with new found confidence. I was able to meet a bunch of other authors who were just as crazy and quirky as I was. I danced and I laughed so hard that I cried a couple of times. I was even mistaken for a superstar by Danica Avet (and no, I will never let her live that down). Lea and I were walking by and she mistook us for some other authors and called us over. We've all been buddies ever since.

But I think the funniest meet was Piper Trace. True story: Lea and I are sitting at a table and writing and Piper comes over, happy to have some authors to write with, reaches into her computer bag, pulls out a diaper and cusses. She then sits her computer on the table and says, "I want you bitches to guard my laptop with your life. I'll be right back." What else could we say but "ok". She didn't come back for 45 minutes LOL.

Not only did I have a blast, but I joined a group of smexy authors and we’ve since become a force to be reckoned with! As the Cabal of Hotness, we’ve put out 5 anthologies called Fondled and Gobbled.

Writing can be a very lonely world, but luckily I now have friends to bounce ideas off, exchange crits and yes, even participate in plots to take over the world. LOL. It’s been wonderful. And I’ve loved every minute!

I don’t know what I’ll experience this time around, but I can't wait to find out. Now, off to pack!

-Griffin

Taking YOU on a Road Trip!

I'd go anywhere my car could take me. I love road trips. LOVE THEM. I'm like a dog that way, sticking my head out of the window, ears flapping and tongue hanging out. WOOT!

There are so many more places I want to drive to, but really I would repeat the road trip me and the family took last year. We drove through the US from SW Ontario to Alberta and Canada on the way back ...after doing a lot of traveling in Alberta.

The trip also made me fall head over heels in love with South Dakota, Wyoming & Montana.

Here are some highlights of my trip. First stop, Chicago, Illinois (I'm sorry Indiana, all the shots of you were at a rest station, but you were pretty). I always wanted to go to Chicago and DUDES how cool that your El Train runs down the middle of the highway!!! I didn't know this and we were muay excited. However, traffic sucked. Even on a Saturday before Noon.

Next up crossing the Mississippi at the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin. At first, you're tricked and you see this tiny estuary thing and then BOOM around the corner is this massive river. Okay, I'm impressed.

Ma and Pa Ingall's homestead De Smet, South Dakota. Life long dream and a very, very emotional moment. Also, fell in love with South Dakota.

South Dakota again. Rapid City & Keystone to be precise and Mount Rushmore. As a Canadian I did feel "odd" because these guys aren't my forefathers, but it was really impressive. I didn't realize what a windy hill you have to drive up to get to it. The people there are super friendly, even to foreigners like us and you pay $11.00 to get in and it's good for a year. SWEET! There is so much to do around here. Next time we go we're going to Deadwood and Custer.

Everyone should ride the Highway 212 from Rapid City into Montana. Gorgeous stretch of highway and hardly anyone around. This is Wyoming. I love it's vastness. How open it was. Just gorgeous.

Montana changes. This is Broadus, Montana in Powder River Country. We're still on Highway 212 and just fresh out of Wyoming, but when you head North from Billings towards Great Falls, the temp dropped and we were in a totally different world. Right around Broadus and Billings is where Custer met his last stand at Little Big Horn.

Just north of Great Falls and heading North to Alberta. See what I mean, now lush and green.

Alberta does it too. Has so many different eco systems and changes. This the badlands in Canada. Drumheller, Alberta which has an amazing Dinosaur museum. These are natural wonders known as Hoo Doos. You can hike up all in and around them. Super cool.

This is just outside of Edmonton and is far, far north of where I live in SW Ontario. So far north that this picture was taken at 10 p.m. on Canada Day (July 1). This is my BIL's farm. Very prairie around here. And those little schmucks are my kids. Their clocks were very out of whack at this point.

Drive 4 hrs west from Edmonton and you hit this. Jasper National Park and the Rockies.

After driving across the Canadian Prairies and visiting my cousin in Winnipeg we came back to Ontario. Northern Ontario and the Great Lake which feeds down into all the others. Lake Superior at Thunder Bay. That's Sleeping Giant.

I'd show you my last picture of the trip, but it was at the Science North Museum in Sudbury, Ontario and it was a picture of a fart machine. (I said Dart gun not a fart gun)

I kid you not. I ended the pictures of our trip with a fart button. *head smack*

I hope you enjoyed the road trip. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Three weeks on the road was worth it!

You can find more about Amy at her website. Or follow her on Twitter.

Her newest release PRIVATE RELEASE was set in Winnipeg, Manitoba which she got to see first hand on her epic road trip.